1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to systems and methods used to record life stories and, more particularly, to systems and methods that are used to capture, organize, share and preserve life stories through collaboration with and contributions from multiple users.
2. Description of the Related Art
Life stories can be recorded in a variety of different ways. Diaries and journals are popular offline forms of recording life stories and are kept in a contemporaneous manner. Diaries and journals provide word accounts of life events and typically do not include any photos that help relate a story visually. Scrapbooks, on the contrary, depict life events through pictures more so than words. Word accounts of events in scrapbooks are typically in the form of an annotation, as a way to provide a brief description of a picture. Scrapbooks often lack a detailed word accounting of the events that have been captured as images.
Today, diaries, journals and scrapbooks are being kept increasingly in electronic form and are shared with other people over the Internet. A blog (or weblog) can sometimes function as an online diary or journal that is shared with other people over the Internet, and online digital photo sharing sites allow users to maintain a scrapbook in electronic form and shared with other users. Both services combine text and images, and their popularity has exploded in recent years as digital photography and broadband access have become affordable to most people. Also, a blog typically has a date entry for the associated text, and a digital photo sharing site typically has a date entry for the associated picture.
U.S. Patent Application Pub. No. 2004/0194034 by Vlamis, entitled “Computerized Scrapbook System,” discloses a method and system for users to create and maintain a scrapbook in a computerized system. The system enables a user to import images, type notes, maintain a journal, store memorable information, and search and view their stored information. In essence, this system automates the scrapbook process and provides users with a format to quickly and cost-effectively create duplicate copies of their scrapbook.
A web-based service known as Wisdom Legacy provides users with a platform for creating their autobiographical accounts. This service employs a profiling technique to develop interview questions to be posed to the users and a book outline for the autobiography. The person's responses to the interview questions are used to create the autobiographical accounts for the book or manuscript that is intended to be published and passed down through the generations.
Other web-based services that offer tools for helping users record their biographies include lifebio.com, biowriters.com, webbiographies.com, and therememberingsite.org. All of these services provide web templates and form questions to help users record their biographies or, in some cases, biographies on behalf of others. The service provided by webbiographies.com allows users to create a network of friends and family with whom their biographies can be shared as they are being composed.